The more things change, the more they stay the same?

Just before I went on vacation Jonathan Landeros (Inventor Tales) posted a great article about old technology vs. new technology – how new doesn’t always mean better. It should really be about picking the right tool for the job. On my vacation the family and I went away for 7-days to Prince Albert National Park (Waskesui) and I left my computer(s) at home. I still had my phone, so I wasn’t completely disconnected, but with no laptop at my disposal it left me lots of time to think and contemplate things.

What I ended up thinking the most about was my day job and the current technology at use. What I mean from this is that we are not adopting new technology and processes, we’re not even evaluating or considering most of them. Why is that? and is this ok? I also though about the current “rut” that I was starting to feel, from a technology standpoint. Which is odd as I never have considered myself bleeding edge, but I’ve always felt that I’ve had a good handle of what was going on….. but now? I’m starting to feel left behind.

There is also the change in how business is being done… crowd sourcing, crowd design, open source new-shoring, …. and the blurring of what’s public and what’s private. What does Intellectual Property (IP) really even mean anymore?

Change happens, and hopefully when it happens its a good thing. At my day job what really changed things for us was the acquisition of an electrical vehicle manufacturer. This has made us look at how we do things differently, and how we can approve. The status quo is no longer the status quo, which is good as one never wants to become stagnant. The new mine being built in the province has mandated 80% electric use for machinery and equipment, with a clear goal to exceed this. What an opportunity for us!

As you can see I was thinking about a lot! But also note that not everything is new, some items have been around for years but are just now becoming mainstream.

I’m going to embark on a series of posts exploring each of these trends and the new technology. I am far from the expert which I think makes it great as there will be plenty of opportunity for feedback. What has worked? What are you looking at? How are you approaching it? I want to explore how to approach the new technology from an individual personal and professional aspect as well as why companies may or may not look at the new tech.

For this series we’ll use an example company “ACME Mining Equipment”, that I’ve made up, but I don’t think is that dissimilar to a lot of small to medium companies. Here’s their profile:

ACME Mining Equipment is a company that primarily manufactures, repairs, and services underground mining equipment. The company started as a custom machine / fab shop over 35-years ago. They have one facility and around 150 employees. They have a very small, but very loyal customer base, many whom we’ve done business with for over 35-years. ACME (or AME) is classified as a small, engineered-to-order, manufacturer (at least as far as ERP companies classify things) as they customize just about everything that goes out the door to meet their customers requirements. The customization is what separates ACME from their bigger competition that just pushes “boxes” out the door.

ACME is an Autodesk shop – through-and-through – they use Inventor, AutoCAD Electrical, AutoCAD Mechanical, Vault Professional, Simulation Mechanical, and even have a few seats of PLM 360 floating about.

About The Author

Hello! My name is Mike Thomas and I have a lot of experience with Autodesk products, primarily in the Manufacturing realm. I spent the first decade of my career working for an Autodesk reseller as an Application Specialist. During my travels, I've delivered more hours of training, support, demos, and implementations that can remember. But I got to see a lot of great places, meet very interesting people, and help solve many problems with Autodesk software.
I’ve been using AutoCAD since r13 (c4 to be specific… I know, I know missed all the “fun” of r13), cut my solid modeling teeth on Mechanical Desktop, and have been using Inventor since before it was known as Inventor (anyone remember Rubicon?). Data Management has always been a big part of my professional life, for the most part with Autodesk Vault and all of its flavours.
Now I am the Technical Services Manager at Prairie Machine & Parts Mfg (www.pmparts.com) a mining equipment manufacturer. After spending many hours there implementing their Vault they decided to give me a permanent office! Reporting to the General Manager, I’m responsible for overseeing the companies technical operations and technical growth. We’re always looking to get stronger, faster, and more efficient.
Outside of work I am blessed with four beautiful daughters. I cheer hard for my Pittsburgh Penguins, love coaching my kids in ball. Lately a hobby of trying beers from around the world has developed and I’m always on the lookout for new ones to try.